In 1948, while construction had halted on Busáras, a regional CIÉ bus station opened in Tipperary.
Like Busáras, this station was influenced by designs by leading modernist Michael Scott. It was Scott's preliminary sketch that a young architect, Eoghan Buckley (1907-1995), worked from but made his own. It is fitting that Clonmel should gain this modernist transport hub, for it was from this town that Charles Bianconi first operated his horse-drawn coaches, which would become Ireland’s first public transport system.
Room to gather
As part of CIÉ’s plan to modernise regional bus stations in the post-war period, it commissioned a depot for Clonmel. In 1946, it acquired a central location on Nelson Street. Since 1789, the Clonmel Unitarian Church had stood on the site, until it was auctioned off and demolished in 1923 (1). Buckley was enamoured with the Modern Movement. In 1936, as part of the Architectural Graduates Association of Ireland, he invited Walter Gropius (1883 – 1969), founder of the Bauhaus, to speak in Dublin for the Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI). It might have been through the AAI that Buckley first met Scott (1905 – 1989). Contrary to some sources, Buckley never worked for the practice of Michael Scott & Partners (2), but as CIÉ’s Consultant Architect Scott generously approved and passed on many of commissions to promising architects.
A thoroughly modern station
The Clonmel bus station required the conversion of a premises formerly used by a private firm as a garage. These refurbishments were carried out by local contractors Morrissey and Sons. The old slated roof and the wall fronting onto the street were completely removed with the new structure accommodated within the remaining framework. On 4 October 1948, the new station was blessed and opened with CIÉ busmen, drivers, conductors and office staff and their families in attendance. Its design is distinctive with an abundant use of glass, perforated steel balcony, overhanging concrete eave and concrete canopies over the front entrances, all framed by smooth, rendered walls which cover the original stone cladding. The new flat roof is built of reinforced concrete, in slab and beam construction. The original drawings show the righthand canopy was once topped with simple steel lettering spelling C.I.E. (3)’ Its design was universally praised and the station was even selected for inclusion in the RIAI Better Buildings Exhibition in 1950.
The station offered modern passenger amenities never before seen outside of Dublin. Passengers would enter through a tiled entrance lobby, which contained a kiosk for the sale of newspapers, tobacco, sweets, tea, coffee, etc., then on to a large waiting room. The waiting room seated eighty people. Similar to Busáras, a central glazed section filled the waiting room with natural light and allowed passengers to see their bus approach from the shelter of indoors. The floor was of highly practical coloured terrazzo with a ceiling formed in panels of painted corrugated asbestos sheeting. Off the waiting room was the men’s toilets and a luggage store. There was a separate entrance to this store from the street, to allow luggage to be brought in without having to pass through the waiting room and disturb passengers. Up the reinforced concrete stairs, also finished in terrazzo, the first floor housed the women’s toilets and a staff room and the inspector’s office, which had windows opening directly on to the waiting room below, and access to a balcony, so that that inspector had a complete view at all times of passengers and vehicles.
Moving with the times
The lifespan of the bus depot reflects the societal shift towards car ownership in Ireland from being a luxury in the late forties to an expectation through the sixties and seventies. CIÉ found it difficult to justify the yearly running cost of £5000 for the regional station, which, by the early seventies, was used by an average of just 25 people daily. In August 1971, the bus depot was sold to the Clonmel Credit Union, with buses re-routed to stop at the railway station. In 1993, the building became vacant again when Credit Union moved to the former Ritz Cinema (1940) site on Parnell Street (designed by Michael Scott & Bill O’Dwyer and demolished in 1991). In April 1996, the former bus depot undertook its most recent reincarnation to become the South Tipperary Arts Centre.
Despite the South Tipperary Arts Centre being recorded on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, it is not on Tipperary County Council’s list of protected structures. This visually stimulating building has transitioned from one public room to another and may it continue to be a gathering space for years to come.
Thanks to Eoghan Buckley’s grandson Prof Alan Mortell, architecture critic Shane O’Toole, and Artistic Director of South Tipperary Arts Centre Helena Tobin.
(1) Butler, David J. 'Presbyterianism-in-Clonmel-1650-1977' in Tipperary Historical Journal (2003) p.81
(2) Confirmed by architecture critic and educator Shane O'Toole
(3) As seen in drawings in Irish Builder and Engineer, 13 November 1948
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